Affiliate Networks

[Baa]

Des anyone operate an affiliate network either of their own or through an agent? If so how have you found it so far, has it been difficult to track where orders come from etc?

[scotserve]

I have used an agency in the past - Commission junction, very effective but had problems with them, the tracking information by and large was good but you had to control who was being able promote your products
I have a current affiliate scheme being launched based around our own software however in the past through the agency I have had problems with people signing up and promoting in all sorts of ways including spamming and against the ethics of the company  so it is my intention to only allow existing clients to become affiliates
To answer your question dead easy to track who the affiliate is but not how they promoted the affiliate link.

[Baa]

Thanks Scotserve!

One of my main worries is how the affiliates promote the business so that's interesting.

[Grifter]

I think you can now have auto accept in Commision Junction. Such as hostgator. No matter who you are you get auto accepted instantly if you apply.

If you're buidling a sizeable affiate network offering affiliates to earn from other promotions then you could look at hasoffers.com for a low budget set up. I think they start at around $99/month for the basic. Also their parent company, errm hmm, can't remember who they are now. Anyway they have hundreds of advertisers. So if you have many affiliates then you can populate your hasoffers platform with advertisers on the main. Hasoffers hasn't a great name (i.e it shows a smaller network) but for UK it would be fine.

[Baa]

Thanks Grifter.

I couldn't find any mention of the UK so I'll contact them, looks like a reasonable package.

[wringle]

I am researching online affiliate marketing. Say I am looking to sell something online. Let's also say I want to leverage affiliate marketing networks to advertise my product. As the merchant, is it common to have the ability to choose which type of advertising channel you are marketed to or is it more like a shotgun blast across the internet?

Or is it the other way around... do the affiliates choose what is eventually advertised by their site?